


Roger Bear and the Little Girl

by lily_lovely



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Mild Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-15
Updated: 2009-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 23:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lily_lovely/pseuds/lily_lovely
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roger Bear is going to have an adventure!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roger Bear and the Little Girl

**Roger Bear's Adventure:** _Roger Bear is going to have an adventure! He loves adventures._

 

Trembling, she drapes the last pristinely folded blanket from the towering stack in the linen closet between the backs of the antique mahogany chairs.

She backs away from it, putting her hands on her hips in a pose that others would find comically adorable, given her age and size, if they were here.

She doesn't find it funny.

Through misty eyes, she surveys her work.

There's a circle of pillows and couch cushions that covers most of the floor, with a mattress dragged inside of it. There are two chairs on either end outside the circle, and enough blankets and sheets draped over them that you can't see the person inside.

Not you. _They_.

**Roger Bear's Big Mistake:** _Roger Bear is pretty smart. Usually he knows just what to do._

 

She's gathered a supply of food--potato chips, Crunch bars, Twinkies--from the pantry, and some cans of Fanta. She has her five favorite Roger Bear books stacked neatly at the end of the mattress.

And of course her Roger Bear stuffed animal is sitting on top of them. She never goes anywhere without him.

She crawls under the blankets, drawing them lower to make sure she's hidden.

She brings Roger closer to her, wiping messy tears off her face. "You see," she whispers, stroking Roger's fur, "this is a test. I'm trying to see how long it takes them to notice me."

She pulls Roger's ear to her face, hot breath washing over him, to demonstrate that she is telling a very important secret. "Because I don't think Mommy and Daddy and Nanny really care about me that much."

She puts him in her lap, unwrapping a Crunch bar. "Not enough to notice, anyway," she says quietly.

**Roger Bear and Betty Bunny:** _Roger Bear loves his best friend, Betty Bunny._

 

Three hours later, she is lying on her stomach, idly flipping through Roger Bear and Betty Bunny for the sixth time.

Every few pages, she pauses, and lies perfectly still. She waits for the clack of her mother's heels down the hallway, or the impatient shuffle of her father's leather shoes, or the soft rustle of her nanny's dress.

She waits longer, each time, but the sounds never come.

She's testing them--but as she turns the page to find the familiar sight of Roger Bear and Betty Bunny skipping down the road hand-in-hand--she realizes that she hadn't wanted to be right.

**Roger Bear and the Class Field Trip:** _Roger Bear's class is going on a field trip to the museum! Roger Bear loves to learn things._

 

Cordelia's frantic nanny rushes into her room to find her curled in a ball on the mattress, asleep, with her thumb stuck in her mouth and a vaguely petulant expression on her face.

She is surrounded by food wrappers and soda cans and haphazardly strewn picture books, and she is clutching her stuffed bear.

Michelle's expression of concern softens into a smile. Cordelia can certainly be a handful, but she's basically a good egg. She knew she couldn't have run off somewhere.

Gently, she gathers Cordelia into her arms, and draws her out of the little hiding place she made. Which is really rather clever for a six-year-old, she thinks.

But it's time to take her to her parents, now.

**Roger Bear and the Long Time-Out:** _Roger Bear is usually a good bear. But sometimes he gets in trouble._

 

"Why on _earth_ did you think it was appropriate to pull off such a stunt?"

She glances at her feet, and shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know."

Her father ruffles her hair, grinning. "Come on, Tina, it's no big deal."

"No big deal? _No big deal_? Walter, how can you say that? She's clearly trying to make me look like a fool in front of the girls--not even knowing where my own child is, or that she's taken half the pantry and all of our blankets to make some sort of stupid _fort_!"

"She's just a kid, sweetheart, she's supposed to do these things."

"Don't you 'sweetheart' me, Walt--you're not going to make this better by standing there with a dumb smile on your face!"

She can tell that they're going to be yelling at each other for a while.

She glances at the office door, and considers escaping back to her shelter--but that would just turn their attention back to her.

And not in the way she's been looking for.

She closes her eyes, and recites the last line of Roger and the Long Time-Out to herself over and over again: "But finally Momma Bear lets him go out to play, and before he does, they hug and hug and hug, and then they bake cookies."

She's never baked cookies.

And she thinks that maybe she never will.


End file.
